Just a quick tip Marty. If you squeeze some silicone sealant inside the heat shrink then slide it over the soldered joint and heat, it makes a 100% watertight joint that will last forever! Give it a try sometime.
Electrical tip when joining pairs of wires; cut each pair different lengths (e.g. Red long, black short, on one pair and black long, red short, on the other pair) so that accidental shorting is eliminated and the cable harness can be more compact. Great video again, love where you live. Envy from the UK.
There is heat shrink for marine applications. It has a waterproof glue that melts when you heat it and it seals completely the whole length of the tubing.
There are two kinds of glue in my experience, some cool and dry almost rigid and if you bend it too much it cracks. The other good stuff dries and stays flexible. Sumitube is the best heat shrink I’ve come across. Specifically Sumitube W3B2. I do a lot of electrical stuff for cars and motorcycles like building and repairing custom harnesses. Excellent stuff.
You can put some hot melt glue on the wires before you slide the heatshrink over, then when you warm the heatshrink up the glue melts and seals the joint
The Honda Fourtrax 300 is a true classic, definitely a hard bike to beat. I had a lot of fun a while back showing up my friends on their big fancy Can Ams weaving in and out of tight spaces and going everywhere they could on a 2 wheel drive TRX300 I paid $100 for and fixed up.
Great video. Two things. Inline filter for older machines with metal gas tanks is a must. Proper heat shrink with sealant build into it is waterproof...the cheap stuff don't have it. Nice bikes...bullet proof.
You can make something good useful and reliable from effectively nothing. I love learning how you do it, especially as we head into a recession; those skills will be very valuable to have.
You just fixed my daughter's little quad. Just killed its second battery. It wasn't a new battery but it had lots of life left in it, but it only worked for a week now its toast. Thought it might have been older than I reckoned, but, after watching this, I checked it and it was bone dry! All the acid had boiled off. It's the blessed CDI and the rectifier! Thanks, Marty!
The oldies are the besties I found, I bought an abandoned Kodiak 400 4wd the cows had tried to eat and with a few hours and $50 I had her running. Having passed that test I spent time and added some LED worklights and a new battery and a few more hours tidying the electrical and she became old faithful hauling around the 6x4 fencing trailer and the round bale trailer when needed as I was on steep non tractor friendly pasture. When we moved to town I chucked the other quads (Suzi's) and kept the Kodiak and was actually looking at her today thinking I should give her some love again, and tonight I watch this lol Weird Quaddy Vibes over the Tasman I reckon! BTW, if you buy the expensive heatshrink and hot gun it I found its plenty waterproof/Cowpoo proof/Ram Wee proof but the thicker cheaper ebay stuff not so much.
as., the marine heat shrink tubing has a sealer inside that is heat activated and really seals those terminals . I've use it for years in my business with no problems. You can order it on line or most good boat stores have it.
Nice one Marty. Fixing my old quad bike at the moment. Appreciate your hints and tips and the fact that you are saving so many old machines still with so much life in them iwhen they get a bit of maintenance. Repair what you can, recycle what you can't repair, use less resources, produce less waste, tread more lightly on the planet. You are living proof that others can do it as well.
I have an uncle who once brought an old grader for his dairy farm. In retaliation his wife bought a wall unit of equal value. Turns out she should have measured the wall first as it didn't fit.
Aint no such thng as junk. Its a lack of imagination. I have an old boat trailer and a 6x6 ATV and in those two is a band saw mill just waiting to come out.
Hey Marty, great video thank you. On that first quad, you can check the filter in the bottom of the tank tap without removing it. There's a hex head shape on the bottom of the tap (can see it at 4:37 ), so just undo that, and the small bottom reservoir comes off - there should be a small metal gauze inside that stopping crud from the fuel tank. Mine was blocked completely - yours might be missing the gauze. Ether way, another simple thing to check on these.
Always a good day when I see one of your videos online. Thanks for reaching and teaching so many of us. My grown kids term the type of critical thinking you use as "sidewise thinking." To them that means staying totally outside of the box to create new solutions. They use to drive their teachers crazy. Not only did they problem solve in unique ways, what they did worked. Raising them to be creative paid off. Now they work in high tech fields. Stay safe and healthy. Living in lockdown in Michigan.
Farm I worked on as a kid had a big red 300 replaced with a foreman 400 when the 300 got nicked. Then a foreman 450es when the 400 got nicked. All were reliable machines the 400&450 went so well though.
There's no better feeling than taking something that is broke and fixing it. I have gotten some excellent deals on craigslist for different gas powered yard equipment. I would say almost 95% of the things I buy it does not cost me a single penny to fix. Most of the time it's the carburetor and after taking it apart and cleaning everything at normally does the trick. All my neighbors bring their broken lawn mowers and weed wackers over to my house all the time. And for the most part I don't charge them anything unless I have to buy a part. It works out pretty good for me. When it snows I have two different neighbors that will use their snow blowers to clean my sidewalk and driveway. Enjoyed watching your video look forward to seeing more.
With pretty much every Honda motorcycle, even modern ones, if you're having a battery/charging issue, it's pretty much guaranteed to be a janky reg/rec so I had a good chuckle at a Honda quad doing the exact same thing.
A lot of farmers are a bit lazy and wasteful run machine's till they bust, then buy new ones, not all tho, its the waiting on parts that gets them bogged down, very little patience, if they ask for a repair cost for a vehicle they try to bid down the guy but seem happy to leave a vehicle to rot an buy a new one, that old penny-wise £ foolish attitude really amused me, when passing an unused vehicle/machine and asked the farmer if he still wants it he suddenly feels the thing is very vali to him, maddening really.
The trx300 is one of the simplest bikes you could ever work on the ATV is basically Bulletproof and any repairs that are required 99% of the time are simple Parts swaps carburetor fueling issues and Spark aka cop problems and the rear ends tend to explode when larger than stock tires with aggressive tread are installed besides replacing the front drum brakes with disc brakes and standard maintenance. the 4 300 hondas i owned rarely required any wrenching two of them were 2wd and 2 were 4wd
That Wee ride on the trail with the first bike would have been a “D” ticket ride in the days before Disney had pay one price admission. Quite a thrill ride. As I watched that I wondered if that trail was going to be the next dozer/grader subject.
Marty love your repair methods I have a Honda that’s doing some sputtering soon as I get out to the farm I’m gonna take that thing apart and take a look at that fuel line and that main jet I’ll bet I have the same problem thanks for the tips you’re great
Shouldn't be running off the main at idle at all... You never actually checked the pilot circuit either just the jet. You can definitely make it work running it off the main but it's always gonna be a little lean. All in all good job man. That's how I used to fix em before I actually worked at a shop.
If working on a Japan bike buy a japan knockoff,Not a china one,Honda's patend's have all lapsed and it is the same factories that made the oem stuff that are knocking them off now. Just look at predator motors.
i thought about getting a hedge trimmer attachment for chainsaw at work luckerly my boss has a ms260 the stihl hs 246 cost about a 100 euro second hand tooth spacing 41 minium very powerful and far better than a 800 euro hedgetrimmer one proble it will be 7 kilos and that is too heavy but i like the idea of getting a proffessional hedge trimmer for 100 euros if i never had hernia operation it would be fine
Those Honda motors are damn near imdestructible. Only problem I've ever had aside from junk in the carbs is those NGK spark plugs. I haven't been riding Hondas very long, maybe 3 or 4 years but I must have had 6 plugs go bad between 3 machines with no obvious reason
I use that liquid electrical tape to seal wire splices. Then I heat shrink the joint. Seems to work great. And it’s all black. Noir, you might say. Especially if you were French. Or French- speaking.
Yeah ive used sekiflex haha no water will ever get in that haha an you will never get it off if it gets on ya. You seem extremely knowledgable with engines and electrical! Awesome
To make a watertight seal with heatshrink, use hot glue on the soldered terminals, put the HS over the top and use a heat gun. The heat gun will re-melt the glue and shrink down the HS, forcing the glue out of the ends, you will then have a watertight seal.
Yep you can do that, I always forget to put the heatshrink on first though haha. I find the marine sealant works very well, I use it on boat wiring and never had an issue with joint corrosion
@@jules5811 Shouldn’t be too difficult, just re-heat and cut away the heat shrink, then clean up the hot glue while soft or allow it to go brittle and remove.
hear is a good tip never use a wire brush on a spark plug it causes the spark to arc wrong use a blow lamp heat up the plug till it glows red it removes the carbon proply
If that had been me all hell would have broken loose hammers thrown spanners kicked etc etc but no our Marty just says OH the Bike will not start and then strips it to find the issue ????
Love when you watch Random Video, and learn something new , that explains why your project took the extreme way to fix it.. thanks for the info on diag. CDI fail issue now i know what to look for how to check what made it fail...
Thanks for sharing. Always enjoy your videos. A squirt bottle applying fuel direct into the cylinder or intake is a good quick check effectively bypassing the carb.
post office maintenance threw a honda mower in dumpster minus carburetor: i think the ethanol gas kills/eats the gaskets, etc. and he didn't know how to repair, buy chinese clone on ebay, etc.
Always good to see a new video Marty. With all of the trees you have around there a sawmill would be ideal for you. I have a 20’ mill and started to building a 30’ mill.
Ok, it's a small point, but why do Kiwis and Americans call them quad bikes? Canadians are more economical with their syllables and just call them quads, period. Quad is 4 and bi is 2. It's a contradiction. There I feel better. Carry on..
I'm just posting this to see if anyone would have a solution to my problem. I've got a 1987 suzuki 250 quadrunner and was running great. Up until a few weeks ago it began to have a very hard cold start... the issue still hasn't corrected itself and I've just left it so I don't burn out the starter. The engine has spark, 120 psi and carb is clean. When the engine does start it puffs out white smoke. However it runs good when it does start and will run all day without an issue. Could it be one of the seals/gaskets in the carb that is leaking air? Needle worn out or jets?
Having lived in the Pacific Northwest and in Hawaii for many years that quad trail looks like a blend of both of those what a cool trail Marty! Love your videos, learning more than my dad ever taught me!
Marty, without wishing to pry unnecessarily, what do you do with your property other than fix every old piece of equipment in the district? ie are you actually farming anything, or just enjoying the environment. Which, is just stunning. Understood if that is asking for overly personal info. Thanks.
I had a similar issue on a motorbike I had, but it's main cause was intermittent bad earthing, which caused the rectifier to pop and then it blew the rest....
12:14 i got one of these exact model bikes cheap for parts... its to good to be parts electric start don’t work it makes a click exactly like shown here i tried to jump the solenoid but nothing. Would that be a starter or bad ground?
Those old Honda's are some of the best machines made. I have an old clunker, 96' 300 2 WD and doesn't even have a battery and cranks 1st or 2nd kick, every time , even after sitting for 2 or more months. Great tips there, as usual.
